Despite The Headlines, Chicago's Crime Rate Fell In 2013

Despite the headlines, that's not really the most important news. No the important news is buried in the piece.

Take a look at the picture. Look at all those black faces. Look at them.

Illegal guns. Illegal guns. Illegal guns drive violence. And military-type weapons like the one we believe to have been used in this shooting belong on a battlefield — not on a street or in a corner or in a park," McCarthy says.

Let's look at that statement. If the problem were definitively "illegal guns" then we would expect that the murder victims (via guns) would be proportionate to the populations. Whites are 45% of the population. African-Americans make up 33% of the population. Latinos (who can be any race) 29%. In a situation where all groups are equally disposed to committing gun crimes, we would see about the same proportion of murder victims (and shottas). But the reality is not so.

In 2011 75% of murder victims are African-American. 4.6% are white and 18% "Hispanic". In fact since 1991 the percentage of murder victims in Chicago has been near 80%. This from a population that makes up 33% of the population.

Question: Is it "Illegal guns" or something totally fucked up in our communities? Are "Illegal guns" up and jumping into the hands of African-American males and then by some kind of mind control making them point said "illegal guns" at other African-American males and pull the trigger? Are the "illegal guns" operating on some kind of remote control and taking out African-Americans all on their own? Do "illegal guns" someone dislike white people and therefore go out of their way to avoid the hands of white males?

See lets keep it real. "Illegal guns" do not do anything on their own. Guns of any legal status do nothing on their own. People are the problem and clearly in Chicago it is one set of people who have a problem: African-Americans. Let's keep it 100% real here. If we keep blaming inanimate objects for our total failure to properly socialize our children, we will continue to see these population control levels of murders

In a city of neighborhoods, though, crime rates are not equal, and many of the shootings here are gang-related in the city's South and West sides.

I know NPR doesn't want to offend African-Americans, but lets keep it real. The above should have read:

In a city of neighborhoods, though, crime rates are not equal, and many of the shooting here are gang-related in the city's Black South and West sides.

That would be keeping it real. But I'm sure folks would say it is "racist" to say that even though it is factual (I suppose I'm a self hating negro for pointing it out too).

Community activists and ministers recently attended a public hearing convened by the Rev. Al Sharpton. "They say that the shooting is down. Well, if one person is shot, it's one too many," he said.

Lets be clear here. Just like with any crime, there will always be crime. Always. So lets lay off the "one too many" talk. People lose control from time to time. It happens. It's a part of the human condition.

Natjuan Herrin lives on Chicago's West Side and is also skeptical. "Well, where I come from, they shoot every day, all day, but it's not safe nowhere in Chicago. Wherever you go, it's not safe," Herrin says

No ma'am it is not "not safe nowhere in Chicago." As pointed out, the unsafe places are where African-Americans live in large numbers. You know, the places where illegal guns magically appear and jump into peoples hands and take over their minds to commit murders that is the fault of white people who don't live there and white people scheming in their white neighborhoods via their school systems where they control the minds of black men (who drop out and skip out at alarming rates) in order to remote control them into committing murder. I suppose I'm an even more self hating negro for pointing this out too.

. Fardon says he doesn't believe the city can arrest its way out of its gang problem. "It is too big. It is too deep. It is too insidious. It starts at too young an age," Fardon says.

Fardon is absolutely correct. You cannot arrest your way out of the problem because the problem starts at home. The crime problem in Chicago, among African-Americans is largely a problem of socialization. This means that it is generational. And no, it's not all African-Americans or even most. But it is enough. It will change when we decide we have had enough.

American Who Fought With Libyan Rebels: I Was Right About Benghazi

Others, like Matthew VanDyke, say the report highlights the nuance of the attack, which was lost in the wake as political and military pundits sought to score points.

VanDyke — an American who fought with Libyan rebels to oust Gaddafi — says the report vindicates his initial assessment of Benghazi, and says people mentioning Al Qaeda have a fundamentally flawed view of Al Qaeda as a top-down organization with regimented ranks.

So why was there an American in a foreign country helping to overthrow the government of that country? How does that help other Americans in countries when they are suspected of agitating against the governments of those countries?

A Small Point About That Pew "Evolution" Survey

I read a lot of commentary in regards to the report that 48% of Republicans do not believe in Evolution. It mainly was the type of "Republicans are stoopid see?" When I read the report I noticed that nearly 30% of Democrats and nearly 30% of Independents also think that felis domesticus was walking around in the Garden of Eden with the dinosaurs (no doubt laying with lambs). Personally I don't think it's pretty much to crow about cause 30% is a rather large number even if it is less than Republican numbers. However there is another reason for the increase in percentages of Republicans believing that Dinosaurs and humans roamed the earth at the same time: Less people identifying as Republicans.

I'm pretty certain that the trend noted in the linked piece has continued to whatever extent. I believe that those who were on the side of evolution probably are Independents or Democrats now (more likely Independents) so I'm almost certain that a significant portion of the change is due to the shrinking base of Republicans and the defection of more scientific minded ones to other parties.

It's Not The NYPD's Job...

What's wrong with the above video? Don't know?

Well the problem is what Tony Herbert said. See it's not the NYPD's fault for the kids running around the mall fighting and carrying on. No. It is firstly the fault of the persons involved and secondly it is the fault of the parents for fucking up raising their children so they think it's OK to act a total criminal fool in public.

How about this. Be in constant contact and constant talk with the parents of these folks to let 'em know WE will not tolerate their kids rampaging. How about when and if one of these kids gets popped by the police after or during one of these events we don't go talking about police brutality and save that for actual innocent people like Louima and Diallo?

But it's always easy to put the onus on the police (the state) rather than on the people who are legally responsible for the folks acting a fool. It's not the job of the NYPD to properly socialize our children.

12 years A Slave Italy Poster Reveals Truth

One of the things that often bothers me about films about historical black events is the focus on the "good white folks". It's the white savior syndrome that creeps in to a film for no other reason than to get the white audience members to identify or relate to the film. As an aside, it is interesting, thought quite explainable, how black people are willing and able to identify with white characters in movies that have ZERO black people in it (see the fascination with God Father movies) but somehow it is "difficult" to have white audiences "relate" to a black [themed] movie.

Anyway, below you'll see the photos for the Italian posters for 12 years A Slave. Clearly, someone thought (perhaps correctly) that Italians would be unable or unwilling to see the movie if the focus appeared to be on the actual central character of the movie.

While Fassbender could possibly rate a large poster due to his lengthy performance, The fact that Brad Pitt appears for maybe 20 minutes but yet gets his as the central point of poster says a whole lot.

And poor Lupita Nyong'o doesn't even rate a mention on the poster and she had more screen time than Pitt.

Patsey: Whole Life A Slave.

Perhaps the Mandela movie will feature a huge picture of De Klerk on it's poster.

I Suppose This Is "Enlightenment"

Read a piece in Counterpunch in which one Joy Freeman-Coulbary (Yes, FREEMAN, *heavy sigh*) was quoted as follows:

As woman of African, Irish, Mexican and Native American descent, married to a husband of Senegalese and Portuguese descent, I believe that intermarriage contributes to inter-cultural understanding and diminishes racial prejudices and tensions. The less we adhere to “race,” the less racism persists. Romantically, it’s also spicy and thrilling to defeat our hardwired biases and find love in the less familiar…

Yes, and fuck you too. I meet a lot of moos, usually those who are bi (or whatever) racial who like to make such claims with blatant disregard to how racist and insulting it is to the rest of us so called "pure breeds".

Basically this chick (can you tell I have no respect of her?) is saying that if all of us were like her and her fuck buddy, we'd all be understanding because you know folks can't be not racist unless they get all mixed up.

Total bullshit.

Oh and not only that. the rest of us "pure breeds" are having less spicy and thrilling sex because, well we're not fucking mixed.

The fucking horror.

All the spicy and thrilling sex I'm missing because I am not adequately mixed.

Yes and fuck you too lady.

You know this "less black is best" is common among enslaved populations and among those who have been colonized by white people. I guess this chick never thought about that.

Yes, I'm being THAT harsh because comments like that are fucking out of order.

Oh yeah, fuck you Sam Smith for co-signing that bullshit.

Just Figuring This Out?

Norman Solomon in Counterpunch

Instead, millions of people on MoveOn’s list are continually deluged with emails pretending that Republicans are the only major problem in Washington — while nearly always ignoring Obama administration policies that are antithetical to basic progressive values.

I guess it's taken Norman THIS long to figure out that MoveOn is a Democratic party organ rather than an independent body. Just like I figured out that not a few people who I saw on Twitter were Democratic party operatives/apologists/partisans rather than thinkers.

It's tough living with principles, open eyes and stuff like actual data.

South Africa’s Biggest Trade Union Pulls Its Support for A.N.C.

Not surprised in the least bit.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, which calls itself “the biggest union in the history of the African continent,” with 338,000 members, announced Friday after a special congress that it would seek to start a socialist party aimed at protecting the interests of the working class. It was a direct rebuke to the A.N.C., which since its days as an underground movement resisting apartheid rule has portrayed itself as the champion of South Africa’s downtrodden.

“It is clear that the working class cannot any longer see the A.N.C. or the S.A.C.P. as its class allies in any meaningful sense,” Irvin Jim, the union’s secretary general, said at a news conference, referring to the governing party and its partner in government, the South African Communist Party.

When the recent miner's strike was ended with murder of the strikers just like before the ANC took power, with the OK of the so called "black leadership". We all knew what was known by a few for a long time, The ANC has been lost it's way. Anyway, this just reminds me that I need to write this piece on Mandela and the ANC.

Only 3...

he new school superintendent in Camden, N.J., says it was a "kick-in-the-stomach moment" when he learned that only three district high school students who took the SAT in the 2011-12 school year scored as college-ready.

3?

3?

I bet the rest of them know Drake and JayZ and Kanye by heart though.

I suppose the problem is racism. You know, the fault of the 5% white population. Or maybe the fact that these kids don't get to sit in classrooms with white students cause you know, none other than the US Supreme Court has declared that black kids can't do shit unless they are sitting at a desk next to white folks.

I don't doubt poverty played a huge roll in the level of "preparedness", but when ALL your students are unprepared for college, something else entirely is afoot.

Michigan man to face murder trial in shooting of woman on his porch

There is no dispute that Wafer shot McBride -- who was drunk and seeking help after a car crash -- through the screen of his front door in the early hours of Nov. 2. Wafer called 911 around 4:30 a.m. and said he had shot someone who was “banging on my door.” More than three hours earlier, McBride had crashed her car into a parked car in a residential neighborhood…

But Wayne County assistant prosecutor Danielle Hagaman-Clark said it's “ridiculous” to believe that Wafer was deeply afraid but still decided to open the door and fire instead of first calling the police. “He shoved that shotgun in her face and pulled the trigger,” Hagaman-Clark said.

You can be scared for your life at the banging on your door. No problem. You can grab your gun too. But you can't open your door put the gun in that person's face and pull the trigger. Opening the door mean's you ain't all that scared.

Dear Japan: Have Seat and Be Silent

Three members of Japan's House of Representatives called on Glendale to remove an 1,100-pound statue honoring an estimated 80,000 to 200,000 "comfort women" from Korea, China and other countries who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese army during World War II.

You lost WWII. Have a seat. It's a lot of gall to go to a third party country and tell them what they can and cannot erect in their city.

Have. A. Seat.

For the Japanese living in LA. Look, you live in a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-racial country. Folks are going to have things you don't necessarily approve of. Deal with it.

Obama to Reach 2 Million Deportations: So?

Under the Obama administration, there have thus far been 1,869,025 removals.

If removals continue at this same pace, President Obama’s administration will reach two million deportations in 130 days – on April 26, 2014.

It is thus accurate to say that President Obama will surpass President Bush’s record on deportations – unless he stops deporting people well before April 26.

It is also accurate to say that President Obama has deported more people than any previous president except George W. Bush.

It is also accurate to predict that President Obama is on track to surpass, in just over six years, the sum total of all deportations carried out under the most recent Bush administration.

And the problem is what?

Every sovereign nation on the planet has the right to say who can come in and who can stay.

Every sovereign nation on the planet has the right to deport individuals or groups who are not supposed to be in that country.

The US has had an explosion of illegal immigration since the 1986 amnesty so why does it shock anyone that there are more deportations than ever?

Why do people in the country illegally think they have a right to stay? It's not even in the UN charter.

Why the non-concern for low wage, low skilled US citizens who currently bear the brunt of increased competition in the job market? Oh, you think raising the minimum wage will fix that eh? Oh, you think that by making those persons "legal" you can pretend like there is no "citizen employment problem". I see you.

Camden And Central African Republic

A few days ago I posted about Camden, that 90% black city which has a murder rate on par with some of the most dangerous countries in the world. In it I commented as follows:

Oh, so the solution to the problem of black crime is white supervision. Let that sink in for a minute.

How do a people, who spend a whole lot of time talking about equality need white supervision in order to behave properly?

One would think that surely after all the exploitation and racism shown by the colonial powers in Africa that in the absence of said exploiters and oppressors Africans would, you know, manage their own concerns. But:

The man, Abdon Seredangaru, 25, a primary-school teacher, was one of the many hundreds attacked in three days of mass killings this month here in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. More than 450 people were massacred in the city, according to the United Nations, and 150 others nationwide…

The arrival of French troops, and a contingent of African Union troops airlifted in by the American military, has brought some stability, and everyday life is slowly returning to the capital. Crowds jostled at the banks downtown as women in colorful dresses and high heels turned up for work.

So half a globe away, in yet another black populated area of the world, French (read: white) troops are needed to restore "stability". Am I the only African bothered by this? Why is it, time after time, White folks need to be flown in to one of the places that we supposedly "run" in order to restore "stability" (among other things)? Camden and Central African Republic: more in common than you think.

The NYT Does Not Know IQ Either

Just like Business Insider, the NY Times apparently doesn't understand IQ either:

But the Somali children were less likely than the whites to be “high-functioning” and more likely to have I.Q.s below 70. (The average I.Q. score is 100.)

The study offered no explanation of the statistics.

No. The median IQ for those classified as caucasian is 100. it is 110-115 for those classified as Asian and 85 for those classified as African. I get no joys from these statistics, but there they lay. So when looking at a sample of white (European descended) children vs a sample of African descended children, that the European descended children still score higher and be "higher functioning" is expected. So the explanation is already known.

The results echoed those of a Swedish study published last year finding that children from immigrant families in Stockholm — many of them Somali — were more likely to have autism with intellectual disabilities.

Again. Not surprising. Northern European natives score a median of 100. Africans score a median of 85. So of when there are other non biological factors added that would trigger intellectual disabilities, Africans are, unfortunately to show more of their population with such issues. Again, I don't enjoy writing this. It's not meant as a knock against the African. The same research shows that urbanized Africans have a significantly higher IQ than non-urban Africans, which suggests a strong influence of environment, education and I think, methylation processes. But this is not the place for that discussion.

Even though the city has Asian and Native American communities, records for so few of those children were studied that they were not included in the analysis, she added, “but it’s reasonable to extrapolate that autism rates among them are lower.”

Well research shows that Asians have a higher median IQ than Caucasians and Africans (115). Therefore it would stand to reason that it would take a drop of 2 standard deviations for an Asian to reach the median IQ of the African, and even more to be registered as having a intellectual disability. Of course the data would have to be collected and studied to confirm that. Anything else is just a guess.

At onetime, 25 percent of the children in local special education classes were Somali, while Somalis represented only 6 percent of the student body. While some children back home had the same problems children everywhere do, parents said, autism was so unfamiliar that there was no Somali word for it until “otismo” was coined in Minnesota.

Personally I think it's the weather. I would act a fool if I had to deal with the winter they have to deal with. Kidding. The other thing could be a large number of misdiagnosed developmental issues that are NOT actually autism. It could be that the children are simply not that bright relative to the white population. It may also be clashes of cultures (language, habits, etc.) that are affecting them in ways that look like autism.

Of course that's speculation and I'm not even a little bit of an expert on autism. But the IQ statement? The NY Times should know better than to pass of 100 as THE average IQ, when it is known that it is the median for a specific group.

Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion

So a judge in DC ruled that the NSA's grabbing of "metadata" was unconstitutional. I'm shocked. Not because I don't agree with the ruling but because apparently there is an official in DC that actually understands the US. Constitution.

It seems to me that a great deal of people do not understand what the term "probable cause" means and why it is in the Constitution. The U.S. government is prohibited from searching your private effects without a warrant. To qualify for a warrant the government must provide reasonable suspicion that you have committed crime. Similarly,in order to search you and your place agents of the government must have probable cause to do so. These two things, Reasonable Suspicion and Probable Cause, are the two things that keep the government in check. Those items are what are supposed to keep the government from going on "witch hunts" and invading the lives of private citizens.

As the NSA said on 60 minutes last Sunday, it is supposed to do foreign intelligence. Of course, under U.S. Law the NSA may search whomever and whatever it pleases. No one who is not a U.S. citizen is covered by constitutional guarantees of privacy. Nor are national governments or so called "enemies of the state". So nothing written here is a commentary on any of that. However; U.S. citizens are supposedly covered under such guarantees and the NSA has clearly and blatantly violated these guarantees.

The NSA has made the ridiculous argument that in terms of phone calls that it cannot get to the contents of a phone conversation. ANYONE with a Google Voice account knows full well that all the NSA has to do (and does, do not be fooled) is translate the conversation in real time to a small text file and store that. That whole "we don't have access to the contents, is for the simple minded among you. The next thing they claim is that it is OK for them to intercept so called "metadata".

Let us be clear, even the capturing of metadata of U.S. persons is a violation of reasonable suspicion and probable cause. Why? Such metadata is not "public". It is not the same as you and I walking down the street in plain view of a camera (and I have issues with cameras, but that's another issue for another time). It can be argued that if you conduct your business in a place where any Jamaal can see you, then a government agent, such as the police, can also observe your clearly public activities and take action if said public activity is illegal.

Your phone calls are not public. While someone may observe that you are making a phone call, no Jamaal on the street can know, simply by looking at you who you are calling. Whether you made or received the call, etc. Therefore your phone calls are not "public" data sitting in plain view and therefore ANY collection of that information iscovered (notice I did not say "should") under the Reasonable Suspicion and Probable Cause requirements. It is abundantly clear that the vast majority of persons in the US are not terrorism suspects. Therefore it is NOT reasonable suspicion to collect their private information which includes so called "meta-data".

The same thing applies to e-mail. I don't understand how any arm of the government thinks that the e-mails that a person sends is OK to collect for any reason at all that is not covered under Reasonable Suspicion or Probable Cause. Exactly what probable cause does the NSA or any agency have for collecting and storing your e-mail (including the "meta-data")? You have committed no crime. You have not been implicated in any crime. You have been implicated in no conspiracy to commit a crime. Why then are your personal effects being collected and stored by the government? The only argument is that you MIGHT be a terrorist. You MIGHT at some point in the future be implicated in a crime. You may in the future you MAY be implicated in a criminal conspiracy. And IF such "reasonable suspicion" were to arise, we ALREADY have access to your information. In other words the entire idea of law enforcement, namely investigations of crimes either already committed or in the process of being committed are being twisted and reversed in the name of "security".

And people think this is "reasonable".

Let me tell you what is "reasonable". Stop funding Al-Qaeda in Syria and elsewhere. Stop meddling in the internal affair of other countries. Stop allowing free entry of persons who don't understand or value constitutional freedoms. I guarantee you that doing these things will do more to promote "safety and security" than the trampling of so called "constitutionally guaranteed rights".

So lets be clear. I don't care what the NSA looks at and stores in regards to people who are not "US persons". Those persons have no coverage of constitutional guarantees. But U.S. Persons have so called "rights" that no government agency should be able to get around. get the warrant. Show the reasonable suspicion and probable cause, then collect away. Short of that, delete.

Black Crime and Population Control

For the longest time I have been wondering why the African-American population has not grown much over the past couple of decades. As I've written the last two pieces on Camden and Detroit respectively it hit me as to how devastating black crime is on the African-American population.

As I've written before, the number one cause of death for African American males between the ages of say 12 and 40 is assault (usually a homicide). Going back to the Camden post we find:

The next year, 2012, little Camden set a record with 67 homicides

That was a record. Now for the longest time I could not understand the gravity of the murder rate in terms other than it's impact on business, employment and community stress. But now, all late, it has dawned on me how bad this is. If you the reader don't understand, then lets look at it in terms of a school. The average urban school class has 30-35 students. I'm going to go with the smaller number. If you have 67 people killed, it would be like every year, two classes of students simply disappearing.

I looked at an article on a Boston high school in which the school in question had 1842 students. A 67 person murder rate, over ten years would see 1/3 of the school population disappear. That doesn't include the shooters. If we add the shooters, then over ten years 1340 persons no longer in the population due to being dead or being put in jail for the crime. That would be close to an entire school population gone every 10 years (of course many, if not most murders go unsolved and so the number of shooters do not match the number shot. Also as with other crimes, one person may have killed multiple people. Therefore the math would be off by quite a bit but is still alarming considering that even unfound killers are a drain on the communities they live in). Multiply that by all the mostly black communities spread out across the United States. Every 10 years black folks in America eliminate one school's worth of people in each of their communities.

How much loss is that? No one can say.

Even considering that murder numbers vary from place to place and the "entire school" argument has it's noted issues, it is still staggering to consider that at the very least, a classroom's worth of people are disappeared each year.

If you are a teacher in a college or university when you next go to teach your class, imagine that all of your students in one of your class being gone next year. If you are a teacher in a high school, imagine that your classroom would be empty next year because all the children that would be there are dead. That's what this high murder rate is. Worse than anything that happened in Sandy Hook. And it happens every year.

Rolling Stone Apocalypse, New Jersey: A Dispatch From America's Most Desperate Town

Here's a challenge. Camden is 95% Black. Black folks say that the problems they have are caused exclusively by White people. Since there are essentially no White people in Camden, Black folks should be able to show the world what they can do in the absence of White people and their racism. What say you NAACP? Urban League? National Action Network? What say you?

in Camden, chaos is already here. In September, its last supermarket closed, and the city has been declared a "food desert" by the USDA. The place is literally dying, its population having plummeted from above 120,000 in the Fifties to less than 80,000 today. Thirty percent of the remaining population is under 18, an astonishing number that's 10 to 15 percent higher than any other "very challenged" city, to use the police euphemism. Their home is a city with thousands of abandoned houses but no money to demolish them, leaving whole blocks full of Ninth Ward-style wreckage to gather waste and rats... Over three years, fires raged, violent crime spiked and the murder rate soared so high that on a per-capita basis, it "put us somewhere between Honduras and Somalia," says Police Chief J. Scott Thomson. "They let us run amok," says a tat-covered ex-con and addict named Gigi. "It was like fires, and rain, and babies crying, and dogs barking. It was like Armageddon."

Again. Remember, no White folks to blame because White folks don't do Camden. What say you NAACP? Urban League? National Action Network?

With legal business mostly gone, illegal business took hold. Those hundreds of industries have been replaced by about 175 open-air drug markets, through which some quarter of a billion dollars in dope moves every year. But the total municipal tax revenue for this city was about $24 million a year back in 2011 – an insanely low number. The police force alone in Camden costs more than $65 million a year. If you're keeping score at home, that's a little more than $450 a year in local taxes paid per person, if you only count people old enough to file tax returns. That's less than half of the $923 that the average New Jersey resident spends just in sales taxes every year.

Remember that post on Detroit I did recently? What did I say about tax revenue? What did I say about how revenue is generated? That's why the title of THAT post was "You Expected What In Detroit?"

. But once Christie assumed office, he announced that "the taxpayers of New Jersey aren't going to pay any more for Camden's excesses." In a sweeping, statewide budget massacre, he cut municipal state aid by $445 million. The new line was, people who paid the taxes were cutting off the people who didn't. In other words: your crime, your problem.

It's pretty easy to blame Christie for deciding not to spend other people's money on Camden's problems. Let's even call him racist for doing so. But here's the thing: What exactly is wrong with "your crime, your problem"? No seriously, the people who left Camden left because they didn't want to deal with the rising crime rates. They didn't want to be threatened by it and they certainly didn't want to pay for it. Is that racist? Really? And if such crime rates are limited to Camden and it's residents, then isn't it the responsibility of the residents to fix? And what if outsiders do pay to "clean up" Camden? What if in return for cleaning it up, they, you know, gentrify it? I mean isn't that fair?. If you ask me to pay to fix your problem, that you created, I should be compensated right for my money and effort, no?

After the 2011 layoffs, police went into almost total retreat. Drug dealers cheerfully gave interviews to local reporters while slinging in broad daylight. Some enterprising locals made up T-shirts celebrating the transfer of power from the cops back to the streets: JANUARY 18, 2011 – it's our time. A later design aped the logo of rap pioneers Run-DMC, and "Run-CMD" – "CMD" stands both for "Camden" and "Cash, Money, Drugs" – became the unofficial symbol of the unoccupied city, seen in town on everything from T-shirts to a lovingly rendered piece of wall graffiti on crime-ridden Mount Ephraim Avenue.

Drug dealers did what? So when the white folks left the only thing that enterprising black folks could come up with was drug dealing?

Hmmmmmmmm.

And get on national TV to brag about it?

And for all the talk about how racist police who love to kill black men (though police involved shootings of black males accounts for maybe...maybe 1% of all black men shot) need to be restrained, we see in the absence of such "racist" police crime goes through the roof and hits a plane flying over head at cruising altitude? Clearly then the issue of high crime has little to do with "racist" police.

At times in 2011 and 2012, the entire city was patrolled by as few as 12 officers.

That's like the number of police in an upscale neighborhood. In a rational world, 12 officers would be too many. But hey, since white folks are essentially absent from Camden, and white folks represent THE cause of everything wrong in black communities, why s there so much crime?

No matter what side of the argument you're on, the upshot of the dramatic change was that Camden would essentially no longer be policing itself, but instead be policed by a force run by its wealthier and whiter neighbors, i.e., the more affluent towns like Cherry Hill and Haddonfield that surround Camden in the county. The reconstituted force included a lot of rehires from the old city force (many of whom had to accept cuts and/or demotions in order to stay employed), but it also attracted a wave of new young hires from across the state, many of them white and from smaller, less adrenaline-filled suburban jurisdictions to the north and east.

Oh, so the solution to the problem of black crime is white supervision.

Let that sink in for a minute.

How do a people, who spend a whole lot of time talking about equality need white supervision in order to behave properly?

You don't understand the question? Let me change the scenario. When have you EVER heard of a poor white community with the crime rates of Camden that needed black intervention to get it's crime under control? I'll wait.

See this is why Garveyism never took hold. Garveyism required hard work. It was about building a community and nation. Not guilt tripping white people about the obvious stuff they had and continued to do. It was about proving your equality by doing what every other people do: Run their communities end to end. But that requires work. It requires dealing quite harshly with people who want to be fuck ups. That's hard. Now getting access to stuff that other people already built? That's easy. That's why the NAACP, Rainbow Coalition, Urban League and National Action Network can spend time in meetings with Macy's and Barney's rather than meeting with black millionaires on how to finance a massive change in Camden where you can't blame white folks for shit.

To paraphrase a poet I know:

They stay worshipping the very Satan they created.

Santa is a White Male. Deal With It.

"I don't really think there should be a white Santa Claus," said one mother whose son shuns white mall Santas. "You've got to do what your kids believe in because if you don't, it's like, you're lying to them."

Stupid. stupid. Stupid.

You know Negroes annoy me a great deal sometimes. Really. they do. Negroes hate their own origins so much that they go and tell other people to place them in their own mythos' so that they can feel better about themselves. Sad thing is that those people are too scared to tell these Negroes to fuck off. The latest nonsense is the apparent stunning fact that Santa is a white male.

Now personally I do not celebrate Christmas. There are two reasons for this:

1) I am not a Christian. Therefore I have no reason to celebrate the "birth of Christ".

2) I don't like the idea of telling children that some overweight white male somehow made an entrance to my home and dropped off gifts when the reality is mom and dad (most cases mom) worked and saved their money (often imperiling their future finances) to plant a toy that will soon be broken or forgotten under a tree. Essentially lying to their children. Later they will punish those same children for telling lies themselves. Set the example.

But I have NEVER, EVER bought into the idea that Santa needs to be black for the supposed self-esteem of black children. Just as I objected to, and still object to Idris Elba (and the Asian) playing in Thor.

So let's get this straight for the folks upset about Santa not being black. Santa Claus is derived from a German myth. You do realize Black people do NOT originate in northern Europe right? Santa Claus is another name for Saint Nick or Saint Nicholas, also known as Sinter Klaus. You also have the figure of Kris Kringle. This long standing germanic myth of a guy who handed out gifts to children became embedded into Christianized Europe along with the Tree of Thor and such things as Yule tidings.

The English character of Father Christmas as a huge white man in red robes were merged into this conglomerate of ideas to solidify the Santa Claus as we know him. This character made it's way in the US by obvious means.

So lets put this dumb shit to rest: Santa as a figure has it's origins in Europe and out of European pre-Christian myths. He was appropriated into Christianized Europe as was the Christmas tree, Easter Eggs and many other things not relevant to this blog post. All the "black" Santa's are essentially Santa in blackface. The worst thing about that is that millions of people will see black Santa and think that the history somehow includes them when it does not. These same people grow up to be the same people making silly complaints of racism, when the truth is pointed out about him.

As for the silly Negroes, how about stop hating on your own origins and celebrate your OWN historic celebrations? If you do that you don't have to worry about making things black, they'll just be that way. But you know, it's easier to complain and edge your way into other peoples culture than to do and maintain your own.

Ex -slaves complaining about the ex-master's holiday symbols. *smh*

U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syria Rebels

WASHINGTON — Just a month before a peace conference that will seek an end to the grinding civil war in Syria, the Obama administration’s decision to suspend the delivery of nonlethal aid to the moderate opposition demonstrated again the frustrations of trying to cultivate a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad.

That would be "official" non-leathal aid. And of course, no mention of "lethal aid".

The administration acted after warehouses of American-supplied equipment were seized Friday by the Islamic Front, a coalition of Islamist fighters who have broken with the moderate, American-backed opposition, but who also battle Al Qaeda.

Meaning, after people such as myself, pointed out numerous times that Al-Qaeda was quite active in the Civil War and stood to gain the most by the removal of Assad. Just as there was a need to justify an intervention, there is a need to justify a reversal. This event provides the necessary "we aren't aiding Al-Qaeda" cover needed by the administration. Also, by knowing that Al-Qaeda was involved in the opposition, the US government was in violation of it's own so called "anti-terrorism" laws, which state clearly that any aid to a terrorist organization is a violation of federal law. Yeah, so there's that.

Administration officials said that the suspension, confirmed on Wednesday, was temporary and that the nonlethal aid, which is supplied by the State Department, could flow again.

Translation: As soon as we figure out how to get around this Al-Qaeda problem.

American officials are still struggling to assess what the internecine battle means. “If we’re able to understand that, we could revert to the provision of nonlethal assistance,” a senior administration official said.

What is there to "figure out"? The more militant group is trying to take over from the less militant group. The goal: topple Assad. If the more militant group wins, Al -Qaeda gets a new state. What else needs to be explained? For US policy (which I'm not commenting directly on here) is to keep a lid on Al-Qaeda, making a proxy war with Assad was a huge, huge, huge mistake.

The official said that the United States would not rule out talks with the Islamic Front, but that it was too soon to determine whether the administration would abandon its insistence that all American and allied assistance be funneled through the Supreme Military Council.

Read that again. Now read my previous comment about the terrorism laws. So the administration is actively considering funding an Al-Qaeda organization? I wonder what all those soldiers who have blown off limbs and the families of the slain who were told they were fighting the enemy think about that?

At the same time, the opposition groups that the Obama administration has designated as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people appear to have grown weaker, in part because of their tenuous ties to many of the rebel fighters inside the country and because of the lukewarm support they have received from the West.

Obama gets to decide who is the legitimate representative of people outside the US? I had no idea. You know, that would be like, say Putin deciding that the Tea Party was the legitimate representative of the United States. No really, THAT is what it's like.

A major aim of the meeting is to begin the process of identifying Syrians who might serve in a transitional governing body that would run the country if Mr. Assad yielded power.

Imagine if you would that during the US Revolutionary War, France decided that as a condition of their support, they would set up a meeting in say Madrid, where they would get to have a direct hand in who would be the "legitimate leadership" of the new republic. Yeah, it's THAT odd. How about this: To the winner goes the spoils?

Khatab, the commander of a small Free Syrian Army battalion, interviewed by phone in Turkey, said that the suspension would hamper fighters like his. But he added that it would ultimately harm the Islamic Front as well, suggesting that whatever the official policies, the Islamic Front had cooperated with the Supreme Military Council and received supplies through it.

A nice admission. I'm sure that included "lethal aid" as well.

NSA Using Advert Cookies and Smart Phone Apps to Track Users

The same documents also appear to show the NSA as using data gathered from smartphone apps, under another section apparently named "Happyfoot." The location data stemming from a smartphone app is considerably more useful for the security agencies, due to the higher positional accuracy when compared to far broader cellular mast-based tracking, potentially allowing for agencies to track the movements of suspects without the need for any intrusive techniques.

Yeah. This stuff gets better and better

To The Black Folks Who are Crying About Mandela But Were Good with the Libyan War

You Expected What in Detroit?

So the official bankruptcy hammer has fallen on Detroit. No one who has open eyes is surprised by any of this. There are a lot of black folks on the left side of the spectrum who see racism at the heart of the matter. While there are certainly racial angles to the problem, it is not the full issue.

As many people on either side of the argument will point out is that Detroit is a mostly black city (~85%). It is also a heavily Democratic city. What I always fail to see on coverage of Detroit is that it once was a mostly White city. When Detroit was mostly white it was prosperous. No one can argue against that fact. Folks don't like hearing that but hey don't hate me hate the history. We all know that there was a riot (or uprising if you will) that started what we refer to as "white flight". It is at this juncture that we, meaning The Ghost, and regular black liberal folks, part ways in how we assign "blame" for the current mess. Generally speaking whites essentially left Detroit and took their money with them. For many people this was a racist move. Sure. You can say that. Let's say it is. What are you really saying? Complaining about white flight is equivalent to saying that White people don't have the right to live where they choose, among who they choose, and to take the money they earned with them. That is called freedom of association. Do you believe in freedom of association/

NO seriously. Answer that question. Because either you believe in freedom of association or you do not. Because if white people aren't free to up and move wherever they please, then black people do not have the freedom to up and move and live where they please. Isn't one of the principles of Kwanzaa, which many "pro black" people support, Self-Determination? If you believe in self-determination then you mustrecognize that everyone else has that right as well. So again, do you believe in freedom of association?

What the white flight argument essentially is is a claim on white people's money and property. Black people ought to have access to the money and wealth that white people have based on the idea that white people's money was gotten in an unfair manner. White people didn't really earn it. OR due to discrimination white people are obligated to fund black development. of course being the Garveyite that I am, though I am all for reparations, I am not of the position that whites are obligated to do black development too. I believe that black people are responsible for black development. If whites must pay, blacks must work. But lets focus on Detroit.

When I was in Michigan in 1989-91 I knew that middle class black folks were trying to get the hell out of Detroit. So there goes the white flight argument. I read about the Halloween devil's night events in the Detroit Free Press. Never had I heard of any such thing. Folks committing arson for no other reason than they could and it was Halloween. I read about the staggering crime rates. How anyone with a straight face would say that Detroit's problems were the sole result of white people moving out is smoking very potent crack. Anybody who was able to was leaving Detroit as far back as 1989 when I finally knew Detroit existed. Detroit's bankruptcy was long in coming.

In 1950 Detroit had a population of 1.8 million. In 2013 that number is around 700,000. Over half the population (assumed tax paying) up and gone. Where were the business development done by the black middle class? Why weren't black people who controlled the government able to get a grip on crime? Was that the fault of white people too? To restate Garvey: Black Detroit! Where are your factories, Where are your cars? Where are your men of big affairs? Where are the fathers of the babies?

Why did Detroit have this coming? Simple economics. Here's the deal: poor people do not generate [much] tax revenue. They do not generate enough tax revenue to run a city the size of Detroit as it stood in the late 1970s. A city the size and complexity of Detroit depends on middle class (and higher) persons and businesses to generate the income necessary for stuff like bus service, street lights, street cleaning, police (and we know Detroit needs police), schools, etc. I mean really, do you THINK the fare you pay to get on a bus or subway reflects the ACTUAL COST of running that service? Really?

Wake up son you've been dreamin'.

You think I'm making this up right? OK check the image from the Tax Foundation:

See the light blue area? That's property taxes. Watch it fall.
See the darker blue area? That's the income taxes. Watch it fall.
See the even darker blue area? That's the utility taxes. Watch it fall.

Watch it all fall. However pay close attention to that first area. The light blue representing income tax. Note that it never kicks up again after 1973.

So as the middle class, both white and black, left Detroit, it's tax base shrunk…and...shrunk…and...shrunk. But those services still had to be paid for. The choices: raise taxes, borrow or gamble. Raising taxes on a population already unable to pay for services they want doesn't work so Detroit borrowed and gambled (see that black area on the chart). And lost. Here's the obvious truth. One that hit Mandela while he was on Robben Island: You can't run out the folks who create the wealth and expect to keep the city afloat. Now for the part that shouldn't have surprised anyone:

That the bankruptcy judge allowed the city to put it's pension on the chopping block in direct violation of the state constitution is alarming. Well it would be if so called "constitutional guarantees" were in fact guaranteed. As we have found out in the past couple of years, our so called "constitutional rights" have already been tossed aside by none other than the chief executive and his people. Since we cannot expect the highest law of the land to be honored by those who swore to uphold it, how can we expect that any lesser constitution such as a state constitution to be worth much more than the paper it is printed on? It should shock nobody that a judge saw no reason for the pensions to be put on the chopping block rather than paid in full as provided for and required by the state constitution. I'll call this trickle down disenfranchisement.

It's not surprising that these things are happening. We are living in a country in which not only does the federal government not give a damn for the rights of citizens, but it is actively trying to accommodate those non-citizens who have entered the country illegally and who use fraud as a means of remaining. It is insulting, as an African-American to see the government at the state and federal level devote money and other resources that would be better spent on infrastructure, education of it's citizens and on job opportunities for it's citizens on folks who have not even a legal right to even be in the country. And I'm supposed to feel guilty about holding the position that the government ought to be looking out for it's citizens first and above all else. If the government on the state and federal level actually gave a rats ass about the rights of the citizenry, Detroit's pension would not even be on the chopping block in violation of the state constitution. It would be on the state of Michigan to make good on it's obligations to it's pensioners even if they wished to change the plans for future benefits.

Barclay's Bank and all other financial institutions that took the risk of lending to Detroit would have been told that they line up AFTER the constitutionally protected pensioners. But no, In a country where citizens rights and privileges are only as valid as the paper it's written on, no one should have expected any different.

But back to Black Detroit. What is glaringly obvious from the course of events in Detroit is that all the talk about "black power" means diddly squat without a sound economic plan and a social movement that addresses young black men. It serves to underscore that for all that "we're a black city" talk, Detroit essentially was dependent upon white money to stay afloat and when that money left, we saw what happened. If black folks want to talk about how equal they are to everybody else, I suggest they take up the words of Garvey and build and maintain their own stuff. All those black ballers making millions? Step up to the plate and finance these black communities rather than complain about what Bank Of America is and isn't doing. These rich black folks? Why don't YOU put your money where your mouths are and finance home mortgages since it is the consensus that B of A is so racist and corrupt. Let's put our money where our mouths are and build up Detroit without the money of those "racist" white folks who "selfishly" took their money ball and left the playground. I'm with Garvey and Delany before him: build your own and show and prove. Name calling doesn't lower crime. It doesn't open small businesses. And it certainly does not provide employment.

Triumph of The Drones

Continuing on with my discussion of the impending employment crisis that will soon hit the U.S. Salon has an informative article on some of the changes that are already happening:

I eventually realized that I could sit down and order breakfast-via-iPad from any seat in the concourse. Before starting, I was required to input my flight details (presumably so I could be warned when my flight was boarding). Then I ordered coffee and breakfast — two eggs sunny-side up, home fries, bacon and orange juice — through a clunky menu interface. A card-reader to my right enabled payment.

A few minutes later, a waitress appeared with a cup of coffee. Ten minutes after that, she returned with the rest of the food. We exchanged hardly a word.

And I wondered: Why was the airport bothering with any human touch at all? Why wasn’t a drone bringing me my bacon? I mean, isn’t that the obvious next step?

And the next step is already with us in Japan. It is only a matter of time before what we saw in I, Robot comes to life. This is why I commented on the whole "livable wage" protest going on. Not that I don't agree on livable wages, but that as those wages increase the cost/profitability ration tips more and more in favor of automated processes. These machines will cost less and less as market penetration happens. Soon, possibly in my lifetime, those workers will simply be unemployed.

I don't really think that the leadership in government really understands what is coming down the pipe. Job training will not help. Automation will be so prevalent that humans will simply be unnecessary in many of the things that we currently expect to see them. Those people, who will still presumably require money to live, will do what to earn? Will the entire concept of "earn" be done away with? At this point I only see the countries that undergo these transformations living like citizens of certain oil states. They get a stipend from the government based on national productivity. Going to have to consider that or something.

Voices from Robben Island

The Mandela Years

Before I write my critique, read this one:

Finally, the “R” – redistribution – benefited corporations most because a succession of finance ministers lowered primary company taxes dramatically, from 48 percent in 1994 to 30 percent in 1999, and maintained the deficit below 3 percent of GDP by restricting social spending, notwithstanding the avalanche of unemployment. As a result, according to even the government’s own statistics, average black African household income fell 19 percent from 1995–2000 (to $3,714 per year), while white household income rose 15 percent (to $22,600 per year). Not just relative but absolute poverty intensified, as the portion of households earning less than $90 of real income increased from 20 percent of the population in 1995 to 28 percent in 2000. Across the racial divide, the poorest half of all South Africans earned just 9.7 percent of national income in 2000, down from 11.4 percent in 1995. The richest 20 percent earned 65 percent of all income. The income of the top 1 percent went from under 10 percent of the total in 1990 to 15 percent in 2002, (That figure peaked at 18 percent in 2007, the same level as in 1949.) The most common measure, the Gini coefficient, soared from below 0.6 in 1994 to 0.72 by 2006 (0.8 if welfare income is excluded).

R.I.P. Nelson Mandela

Jihadist Groups Gain in Turmoil Across Middle East

Oh yeah. OHHHH yeah. I remember a few years back when certain mainstream news organizations were talking about how Al-Qaeda was defeated and it's goals and aims were not bearing fruit. I laughed because I knew that wasn't true in the least bit. In my opinion such commentary was no better than GW Bush's "Mission Accomplished" grandstanding.

I said then that the Arab Spring was actually an opening for Al-Qaeda because one of their stated goals were to topple regimes that they saw as insufficiently Islamic as well as too closely aligned (or aligned at all) with The West. So far from a rejection, many of the events were in fact in line with the desired outcomes of Al-Qaeda.

Intensifying sectarian and clan violence has presented new opportunities for jihadist groups across the Middle East and raised concerns among American intelligence and counterterrorism officials that militants aligned with Al Qaeda could establish a base in Syria capable of threatening Israel and Europe.

So NOW these folks are concerned about that? I would have thought these geniuses would have figured that out long ago. And what's this?

“We need to start talking to the Assad regime again” about counterterrorism and other issues of shared concern, said Ryan C. Crocker, a veteran diplomat who has served in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. “It will have to be done very, very quietly. But bad as Assad is, he is not as bad as the jihadis who would take over in his absence.”

Which we here at The Ghost knew all along. You know there is a reason why Mubarak was called "Our boy in Egypt" right? Look. It was STUPID to have gotten involved with the Syrian civil war. It is equally bad for the US to be willy nilly turning on former allies. That anybody trusts the words of the US after the recent backstabbing of former allies is beyond me. One minute they're visiting the White House or a diplomat is taking a photo for a photo-op and the next we're talking about who has to go and where we're going to bomb and what red line exists. That's really bad policy, kinda like the new dumb shit going on in the South China sea. I mean really? The US is where? The South China Sea is where? Why does the US think they have the right to fly anywhere and declare who we will and will not notify like the whole world is the US's property.

But rest assured that if the Chinese up and decided to fly a warplane anywhere near the US west or east coast for a couple of hours without notification there would be all kinds of complaining going on.

Seriously?

As a follow up to last night's post on protected classes. Jane Wells shows us just how far the rabbit hole goes. Remember that I said that the material directed at white males eventually filters down to the rest of us. Here's a wonderful example:

Whether white men can be discriminated against is one question. Whether THESE white men were discriminated against is a second question. Whether men should generally be bothered by a female referring to them by their male anatomy is yet a third question. I will let you answer these questions for yourself.

But talk about a toxic workplace.

The only valid question in this set is question number two: Whether those [white]men were discriminated against. The other two "questions" are not questions at all. They are a matter of fact. White men, like all other men can be discriminated against and when it comes to the workplace a man can and should be bothered by a female referring to them by their "special" anatomy.

There is no "make up your own mind" when it comes to this. There is no fuzzy grey area. This is what I was referring to last night.

"Not A Protected Class"

Salon has an article entitled "Three white college students file racial discrimination complaint against professor over lesson on structural racism" which contains a video interview with the professor involved, the head of the "diversity department" but curiously not any of the three students involved.

First and foremost; regardless as to what position one holds on the incident, if one is going to present a video report on the subject one should at least ask one of the mentioned parties for comment. If anything the absence of commentary from the students involved only serves to underline their contention that they are being singled out for discrimination. Lets start with the allegation:

A black female professor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College was formally reprimanded by school officials after three of her white male students were upset by a lesson she taught on structural racism.

Shannon Gibney says that the students reacted in a hostile manner to the lesson in her Introduction to Mass Communication class, with one of them asking her, “Why do we have to talk about this in every class? Why do we have to talk about this?”

Gibney says that, after this initial comment, another white male student said, “Yeah, I don’t get this either. It’s like people are trying to say that white men are always the villains, the bad guys. Why do we have to say this?” These students continued to argue and disrupt the lesson until Gibney told them that if they were troubled by her handling of the subject, they could file an official complaint with the school’s legal affairs department.

I was not a communications major when I was attending university so I do not know what subject matter is covered in an Intro to Mass Communication class but I would seriously ask, on academic relevancy grounds what a lesson on "structural racism" has to do with Intro to Mass Communication. Not that there are no academic ground to cover such a subject but is an Intro to Mass Communication the place for such a topic? The other question in regards to that subject would be has or had the professor covered other "discriminatory structures" in Mass Media (misandry comes immediately to mind). Secondly by the statements made by the students and the words of the professor herself, it would appear that the entire subject matter was the negative representation of white heterosexual males. One could ask "what is wrong with that?" and the answer would be that if one is talking about racism and racist attitudes and actions in "Mass Media" that only made the "bad guys" out to be white males, then one is not only covering up group acts of racism (remember that racism is actually a set of beliefs and attitudes in regard to race, any race that are not necessarily negative or positive). Therefore the subject would have to cover similar attitudes, if any, present in other groups. For example the lack of black people in much "Hispanic" mass media even though there are a great deal of black Hispanics. Or the general absence of dark skinned Indians in their media outlets, advertising, etc. Particularly in regard to women. Are these not "structural racisms" that do not involve white heterosexual males?

Moving on. When you watch the video and see Gibney's commentary you find some very typical, shall we say entitlement and hysteria common among female liberal faculty members:

1) She said she is scared. No seriously. What is with liberal "feminist" women and their apparent lack of emotional control? Just about every time I see a liberal women get challenged on something she says, there are comments about not feeling safe and the so called intimidation they are feeling. It is as if everyone is obliged to walk on eggshells lest these delicate "damseling" women catch fright. Gibney should be put under a psychiatrists care if she is scared to be in a class of students willing to ask questions and not simply take what is said as canon. Isn't that what these institutions of higher learning are supposed to be about anyway?

2) She's complaining about her authority taken away (or challenged). Well yeah. Students can actually do that, provided they are respectful. I'll say this as someone who regularly challenged my teachers in college, including reporting one to a dean; If I feel that I am being picked on based on my race or gender, I will do something quite similar to these 3 fellows. It is a GREAT thing that I did not have to sit in a gender class for graduation. Based on what I have been seeing, I would have certainly gotten into it with not a few faculty members over the blatant bullshit passed off as sound academics. Here's the deal: If you don't want to be challenged in class, make sure your shit is tight. That means checking your material against that which opposes it. I know this is hard for some people to understand, but as an academic you have an obligation to look into opposing viewpoints and data AND to present that to the students so long as that data is credible. If you don't expect to be challenged.

3) She handled the situation all wrong: In my view this is partly why she is being reprimanded. As a teacher and someone who is supposed to be facilitating the development of critical thinking skills she was very dismissive of the students concerns (most likely because being white, male and presumably heterosexual, they have no say. No really, there are so called feminists who believe that men have absolutely no right to opine on various subjects). Instead of inviting the students to lodge a complaint she should have taken the opportunity to provide them with an assignment to air their view on the subject of "Structural Racism in Mass Media". This was a perfect learning opportunity for the entire class. Since the original complaint stemmed from a student presentation(s) (as claimed by Gibney) let these students present their case in an equal setting and be subject to the same challenges they wished to impose on others. I will lay down $1000 that had Gibney done this rather than take offense at "challenges to her authority" she would not have been reprimanded AND she would have gained the grudging respect of the students who disagreed with her, because at least she was open to opposing views. She also would not have opened the school to a lawsuit.

4) If Gibney is so concerned about intimidating white males why is she teaching there? If Gibney is so concerned about the performance of "students of color" and has issues being confronted by white male heterosexual students, why doesn't she teach at an HBCU? No really? I have been asked to "teach" (that is really funny) at a HBWC and I have flat out refused because I don't do challenges like that. As a Garveyite I concern myself with the education of the African as my primary mission. I'm not here to educate other folks. So I sensibly stay away from the profession. I WOULD be so inclined at an HBCU. Perhaps Gibney would be better off teaching at say Spellman. There she could teach without being bothered with intimidating males at all.

5) Why do black (alleged feminists) keep letting white women off the hook? Really? Why? Gibson blatantly states that the "structured racism" is the sole creation and operation of white [heterosexual] males as if white women were not and are not supportive and benefiting from the same system. Like they didn't raise the kids, make the false accusations, and request the handmaidens (among other things). No seriously, why do black folks (particularly of feminist stripes) continue to give white women the oppressor pass? It's like they forget those women are white as well until they do something that upsets black feminists who then throw a fit about racism in white feminism. Well duh…welcome to the "structural racism" ladies.

6) Lastly there is the issue of folks thinking they can get away with commentary that is discriminatory in nature when it is directed at White [heterosexual] males. This particular poison is the result of the government's creation of "protected classes" of people. Of course it was started with the noble intention of protecting black people from discrimination but it has since been expanded and diluted to the point that if one is not a white [heterosexual] male, then one is a protected class. This is silly and it has dangerous consequences. It may seem odd for a Garveyite to be seen as "protecting" white males. However; upon further examination you will see that it is not so strange. One thing I have noticed from the flip dismissal of commentary or concerns of white males most recently by feminists is that it has crept into flip dismissals of black males (see so called Black Male Privilege) by so called black feminists. Often in many so called progressive conversation, "white" is stripped from male and conversations devolve down into supposed evils of heterosexual males as a group. At that point, as a heterosexual male it becomes my business and my concern. This brings us to article number two:

Nancy Silberkleit is accused by her male employees of gender discrimination such as referring to them as 'penis' instead of by name

Yeah you read right. But that was not the worst of what she did. Not satisfied with engaging in behavior that would have gotten a male worker fired and make headlines across twitter, Nancy's legal team whips out the big gun:

In papers filed in Westchester Supreme Court, Nancy Silberkleit's lawyer says a gender discrimination lawsuit filed against her earlier this year by a group of Archie Comics employees should be tossed in part because white guys aren’t members of “a protected class.”

So in essence, Nancy is free to be sexist towards men, heterosexual men, white heterosexual men, because the government doesn't protect their rights. Not because they have no rights. Does this sound familiar? No? Sounds a lot like the Dred Scott decision doesn't it? For those unfamiliar with that case, the judge in that case declared that black people in general have no rights that any white male (or female for that matter) were bound to respect. How is that any different than this lawyer's contention that the white heterosexual male cannot have his day in court because basically he has no rights that the government (or anybody in a so called protected class) are bound to respect? I believe it was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who pointed out that when the rights of one group are trampled on, we are all damaged. See how low feminism has stooped? It begins with an idea and grows into a gross legal framework that threatens everybody.

Mind you I understand that lawyers need to do whatever they legally can to defend their client but I would hope that the judge in this case tosses that entire argument out as it clearly fails the 14th Amendment case. Protected classes are protected from discrimination and not from being discriminatory. How that doesn't fall afoul of the 14th Amendment is beyond me. But I assure you that this policy, the entire concept of "protected classes" is going to get blown up due to this kind of behavior.

And in complete disregard for what gender discrimination is:

And Silberkleit's lawyer, Thomas Brown, said the employees' allegations don't even rise to the level of gender discrimination. "It's absurd," he said

Essentially they are claiming that even if the behavior in question happened, it isn't discriminatory. Imagine that! Imagine a male supervisor referring to his female subordinates as vagina. like "go see the vagina at the front desk." Yeah, such a claim of "not discriminatory" would generate many many laughs and meme's across the internet.

This takes us back to Gibney's class. She's fortunate that the students in question did not have the information I have at the tip of my tongue because a reprimand would have been the least of her worries. See the problem Gibney has is that she thinks she's entitled to say whatever it is she says and that somehow her degree places her beyond critique. Matter of fact a lot of black people walk around with a sense of entitlement. Gibney didn't even acknowledge the concerns of the students. They were simply labelled "angry white heterosexual males" and told to be quiet. Yeah, I'm familiar with that kind of attitude as a BLACK male so I can sympathize. Black folks think that they alone can discuss and discuss correctly matters of racism. That simply is not the case. While we may have the best experiences on the receiving end we also make mistakes in discussing it (since we are fallible humans) and have our own blind spots on the matter. Futhermore, as is evidenced from this blog, not all of us ascribe to the same overall themes of racism. For example, I freely point out the White Supremacy System and Culture as described by Garvey(s) and Welsing, but many of my compatriots do not ascribe. I personally think I have a far better documented case for my position than they do, but I leave that to the readers. What is worse though are academics who think somehow a PhD means they cannot be wrong or questioned by anyone much less someone far less degreed (or has qualifications in other fields of study).

What Gibney and others of her ilk will soon learn is that they no longer have the monopoly on information in regards to issues of race and gender. The world wide web has thrown open the doors of information that previously was locked away in libraries and journals. Stuff like the very very bad violent crime rates among African-Americans are no longer hidden as they are all over YouTube and reported on by individuals with blogs. Blatantly racist (some would say "compensatory justice") knockout games and polar bear hunting deals deadly blows to the common concept of racist violence as the sole domain of whites as perpetrators. The anti heterosexual male attitudes that permeates the feminist sphere are being well documented for those who look for it. And while the mass media of Gibney's class may still hold sway over the public, these things are reaching out. If black academics wish to keep their heads above water, whether it be in matters of race or gender, they better get their acts together and get more, shall we say, mathematical with their analyses. A lot of what is out there is heavy on academic jargon (watch the video) and low on verifiable data. Current verifiable data.